Dick Van Dyke Flees Burning Jaguar

By City News Service

Actor Dick Van Dyke safely escaped from his burning four-door Jaguar which caught fire around 2 p.m. Monday on the eastbound Ventura (101) Freeway near Parkway Calabasas, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Officer Leland Tang says the actor pulled over to the side of the freeway and got out of the car as it started to burn, and he was not injured.

Van Dyke, who still tumbles into living rooms through syndication on the "Dick Van Dyke Show," was assisted by a passerby who assisted the 87-year-old actor from his vehicle, according to the website TMZ; the actor, slightly disoriented from the event, is home safe. The website said Jason Pennington pulled Van Dyke from the vehicle; Pennington said Van Dyke was hunched over and struggling inside when he arrived on the scene.

Among his other projects, Van Dyke starred on television in "Diagnosis Murder," and the movies with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins.

—Martin Henderson